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Safi

(Encyclopedia)Safi or Saffi both: säˈfē [key], city (1994 pop. 262,276), W central Morocco, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is a center of the Moroccan fishing and canning industries. Phosphates are exported. Safi was...

Ptolemaïs, ancient cities, Asia and Africa

(Encyclopedia)Ptolemaïs tŏləmāˈīs [key], ancient name given to several cities to honor members of the dynasty of the Ptolemies. One of these later became known as Akko, in modern Israel. Another was one of th...

Angelus, Byzantine emperors

(Encyclopedia)Angelus ănˈjələs [key], family name and dynasty of three Byzantine emperors (1185–1204): see Isaac II; Alexius III; Alexius IV. ...

Pepi II

(Encyclopedia)Pepi II pāˈpē [key], d. c.2185 b.c., king of ancient Egypt, of the VI dynasty. His reign (c.2275–c.2185 b.c.) is the longest recorded in history. It was successful because the powerful southern l...

Casimir II

(Encyclopedia)Casimir II, 1138–94, duke of Poland (1177–94), youngest son of Boleslaus III. A member of the Piast dynasty, he drove his brother Mieszko III from power at Kraków in 1177 and became the principal...

Achaemenids

(Encyclopedia)Achaemenids ăkˌəmĕnˈĭdz [key], dynasty of ancient Persia. They were descended presumably from one Achaemenes, a minor ruler in a mountainous district of SW Iran. His successors, when Elam declin...

Samanid

(Encyclopedia)Samanid sämäˈnĭd [key], Muslim Persian dynasty that ruled (819–1005) in Khorasan and Transoxiana as vassals of the Abbasids; founded by Saman-Khuda, of old Persian aristocracy. The Samanids were...

Amenhotep III

(Encyclopedia)Amenhotep III ăˌmĕnōˈfĭs [key], d. c.1372 b.c., king of ancient Egypt, of the XVIII dynasty. He succeeded his father, Thutmose IV, c.1411 b.c. His reign marks the culmination and the start of th...

Přemysl

(Encyclopedia)Přemysl pərzhĕmˈĭsəl [key], earliest dynasty of Bohemia. Its semilegendary founder was the peasant Přemysl, whom the Bohemian Princess (sometimes called Queen) Libussa chose as her husband at s...

Almohads

(Encyclopedia)Almohads ălˈməhădz [key], Berber Muslim dynasty that ruled Morocco and Spain in the 12th and 13th cent. It had its origins in the puritanical sect founded by Ibn Tumart, who stirred up (c.1120) th...